April Reading Thread

[williamjm]

I read Max Gladstone's Dead Country, the start of a new trilogy following on from his Craft series. The previous book set in this world, Ruin of Angels, had finished with the discovery of a looming threat that could be potentially apocalyptic. As the book starts its lawyer/necromancer protagonist Tara is pre-occuppied by worrying about this threat but has to set it aside after she learns of a death in her family, leading her to return to her hometown. Since she had previously been chased out of that town by a mob wielding pitchforks and torches it's something of a tense homecoming. One of the defining features of the series has been its portrayal of a world-building that in many ways feels like a modern society but one whose economy is based on magic rather than technology. This book is a bit of a departure because there's little magic present in the frontier town it is set in, although it does face a threat from the supernatural Raiders. This means there is a bit less focus on the world-building than in previous books. The early parts of the book are often quite reflective as Tara tries to deal with the culture-clash of returning home, but things do get more tense in the latter stages as the Raiders threaten to obliterate the town. Tara also unexpectedly finds herself with an apprentice and I thought the interactions between Tara and Dawn had some of the best characterisation in the story. Although it mostly feels smaller in scope than earlier books in the setting I did think it was a compelling story and the ending is a good set-up for the rest of the trilogy.

I've now started Shannon Chakraborty's medieval Arabic pirate story The Adventures of Amina-Al-Sarafi, which I am enjoying so far.

 

[Spade]

Cibola Burn (The Expanse #4) by James SA Corey. I finally finished this after starting and stopping a few times. The middle part of the book is a slog. I think it's the least compelling of the first four, but still worth reading.

Eyes of the Void by Adrian Tchaikovsky. It's a great followup to Shards of Earth so far. I do wish the whole series was from the point of view of Idris and Solace though. Havaeh Mundy is thoroughly uninteresting.

 

[Dave Vicks]

Play THE HEIDI CHRONICLES.

Will Self short Stories. TOUGH ,TOUGH,TOYS FOR TOUGH, TOUGH BOYS.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Having mentioned elsewhere that I was feeling tempted to watch the mini-series adaptation of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell again, I have since decided on re-reading the book instead.

I had forgotten how very unsettling the magic in the cathedral was in the book as compared to the dramatization.

And at about the 15% mark now, by knowing what is to come later, I find that I've been better appreciating certain nuances and ironies which did not impress me so strongly on the first reading.

 

[Bick]

I’ve started Embers of War by Gareth L. Powell. I’ve not read any Powell before, but I know this won awards so I’m hopeful I’ll like it (and hopefully more than the Hamilton novel I tried a couple of weeks back, given both are recently published well known British space opera works).

I’m enjoying this a lot - proper space opera, and much better than Peter Hamilton (do far at least, so fingers crossed).

 

[svalbard]

Having mentioned elsewhere that I was feeling tempted to watch the mini-series adaptation of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell again, I have since decided on re-reading the book instead.

I had forgotten how very unsettling the magic in the cathedral was in the book as compared to the dramatization.

And at about the 15% mark now, by knowing what is to come later, I find that I've been better appreciating certain nuances and ironies which did not impress me so strongly on the first reading.

I found the imagery really striking in the book and parts of it gave me real chills.

 

[Dave Vicks]

Currently THE SECOND FOUNDATION by Isaac Asimov,1953.

And a Patricia Cornwell novel.

 

[Danny McG]

Oops

 

[Hugh]

Gareth Knight "Dion Fortune & The Inner Light"
Charles Fielding & Carr Collins "The Story of Dion Fortune"
Not a complete waste of time - some points of interest for me, but relatively little information about Fortune's actual life story. The first volume is mainly concerned with transcripts of teachings received from "Masters" on the inner planes while in trance. The second is written in a very basic way that clearly horrified the informant (one of the listed authors) who disowns the book in the second edition introduction. My interest had been raised because someone had told me that Fortune had been a Jungian analyst before moving into the occult, but this turned out to be misinformed. There was so little information about Fortune's life in the first book, that I thought I'd try another. In the event, there's more information on wikipedia.
However, she was obviously a charismatic figure who was influential in occult circles in twentieth century UK.

 

[Elentarri]

Read:

The Two Noble Kinsmen by William Shakespeare
The plot of The Two Noble Kinsmen is based on "The Knight's Tale" in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, and is attributed jointly to John Fletcher and William Shakespeare. This play was apparently William Shakespeare's final play before he retired to Stratford-upon-Avon and died three years later. I suppose one can call it a tragic comedy.

A Sliver of Darkness by C.J. Tudor
C.J. Tudor's collection of short stories was offered to her publishers in place of the novel that didn't work. The collection varies in genre, tone and subject matter, but all are well written (even if the type of story wasn't my thing). The collection starts with an introduction by the author, and each story also has its own "story origin" introduction, which I found interesting. I also liked that C.J. Tudor can manage to squash in some back ground or history for the story narrators without being info-dumpy, so the characters are fleshed out and not just cardboard cutouts telling the tale.

 

[Dave Vicks]

Up next HIGH RISE by JG Ballard, 1975.

 

[Dave Vicks]

Short audio book BUDDHISM FOR BEGINNERS, 2023.

 

[Dave Vicks]

Currently Kate Wilhelm SLEIGHT OF THE HAND, 2006. Legal thriller.

 

[AE35Unit]

More Pratchett next Lords and Ladies, witches book 4

 

[Randy M.]

Finished White Horse by Erika T. Wurth. Solid first novel, a ghost story, about on par with Joe Hill's debut novel, Heart-Shaped Box.

Started American Hippo by Sarah Gailey.

 

[Danny McG]

A Sliver of Darkness by C.J. Tudor

I started on that but DNF, I was on maybe the third story and we had UK teenagers in a Midlands council estate asking for a flashlight.
This happened twice more in the same story and I snarled at my device and deleted the file.

 

[Elentarri]

I started on that but DNF, I was on maybe the third story and we had UK teenagers in a Midlands council estate asking for a flashlight.
This happened twice more in the same story and I snarled at my device and deleted the file.

There were some ideas being recycled. I assume you expect the kids to use their cell phones for flashlights? Personally, I was thrilled that someone actually still knows what a flashlight is.

 

[Rodders]

Finished the audiobook of The Hitchhiker's Guilde to the Galaxy, which was great fun and reasserts itself as a much loved classic, in my mind. I laughed out loud a lot and there was a lot that i'd forgotten.

A credit to the original cast, though. As great as Stephen Fry is (and he really is great), i didn't think he was a patch on the original cast and i kept wanting to hear the musical cue from the radio drama. I might have to download them and revisit it as well.

Now on to The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe read by Martin Freeman.

 

[Danny McG]

There were some ideas being recycled. I assume you expect the kids to use their cell phones for flashlights? Personally, I was thrilled that someone actually still knows what a flashlight is.

Nah
They're English kids, they'd always call it a torch.
However CJ clearly decided to 'Americanise' the story

 

[HareBrain]

They're English kids, they'd always call it a torch.

I don't know, would they these days? The torch function on my phone is labelled flashlight, and I'm guessing that's the same for all phones, and that's probably what they would use as a torch most of the time.

If only we had some members under 30 we could ask.

(ETA: mind you, you have kids in your household so you might know better.)